SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A lawsuit has been filed in an try to cease the implementation of lights on the Bay Bridge. Amongst a number of gripes introduced up by the Smooth Lights Basis, the lawsuit calls the lights “neurologically intolerable” for folks with sure disabilities.
The lights, as soon as a fixture of the bridge, went darkish in 2023. An arts nonprofit named Illuminate has been working to put in 50,000 new custom-engineered LED lights.
Nonetheless, these LED lights can have destructive penalties on the group in a number of methods, in accordance with Smooth Lights President Mark Baker.
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The lawsuit says the highly effective LED lights will trigger “light pollution,” which is electromagnetic radiation disturbing the pure darkness of night time. It could possibly affect the habits of fish, birds and bugs, in accordance with the lawsuit, in addition to improve the danger of a number of ailments together with breast most cancers.
The swimsuit additionally calls the lights a “neurologic hazard” for individuals who undergo from sure disabilities. Amongst these impacted are folks with epilepsy, autism, and “thoughts of suicide when exposed to LED lights.”
“It’s a dramatically different type of light, closer to laser beam than it is to regular light,” Baker mentioned. “Many of us cannot neurologically process, it’s just too intense.”
Baker says he was “forced out” of his job as a math instructor due to his sensitivity to LEDs. He asks his companion to drive him round to keep away from publicity to LEDs.
Baker says the Bay Lights venture didn’t move a legally required environmental affect report earlier than it started.
Smooth Lights has reached out to Illuminate, Caltrans, the Bay Space Toll Authority and extra entities however has been disregarded, Baker mentioned. That prompted him to file the lawsuit. He says it’s “highly unlikely” for the lights venture to go ahead with out harming anybody, even whether it is tweaked.
